Lightning 8-1 Sharks
The Tampa Bay Lightning (13-9-2) went on a rampage as they dismantled the visiting San Jose Sharks (10-14-5), with five first period goals sending them on their way. Cam Atkinson got the goalscoring started just 86 seconds in. Conor Geekie added a second at the 7:29 mark, before Brandon Hagel netted two in the space of 33 seconds to put daylight between the two teams. Jake Guentzel rounded off the scoring in the opening period 2:15 before the intermission.
Pulling their goaltender to start the second period the Sharks were able to hold off the hosts for a little over four minutes before Anthony Cirelli added a sixth for the Bolts. Nick Perbix joined in on the scoring near the end of the second period.
San Jose's only goal came moments into the third period, as Alexander Wennberg denied Andrei Vasilevski a shutout. Nick Paul rounded off the scoring six minutes into the final stanza. While he did not score a goal himself in the game, Brayden Point assisted four times to take his total to nine.
It was the second time in their last five that the Lightning scored eight times in a game, having done the same against the Colorado Avalanche. The defeat ended a streak of three straight victories for the Sharks.
Flyers 5-7 Panthers
Out in Philadelphia, fans were treated to what was easily the most entertaining game of the night, as the Florida Panthers improved to 16-9-2 after a 7-5 back-and-forth contest away to the Philadelphia Flyers (12-11-3). The guests were up 3-0 early in the second period after goals from Evan Rodrigues, Niko Mikkola, and Aleksander Barkov, when the Flyers sprung to life. Tyson Foerster and Nick Seeler brought them back to within one, before Carter Verhaeghe put the Panthers back up by two goals with 6:25 to play.
That was when things took an even more dramatic turn. Owen Tippett then found the back of the net twice in the space of 23 seconds, with Matvey Michkov assisting him on both goals. Then, 5:37 into the third period, Garnet Hathaway put the hosts in front for the first time.
But, Florida showed their mettle, and turned things around later in the period. First, Gustav Forsling levelled the score with 5:17 to play. Then, just as the game was winding down, Sam Reinhart got the winner with two minutes to go. Matthew Tkachuk added one more with seconds to play as the Flyers had pulled their goaltender in an attempt to tie the game and force overtime.
Phile's three-game winning run came to an end as a result of the defeat, as they sit just outside of the playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers, meanwhile, stay second in the conference, taking their goalscoring tally to 103, the most in the league at the time of writing.
Across some of the other games, The Carolina Hurricanes (17-8-1) had five different scorers as they held off the Colorado Avalanche (14-3-0) 5-3, the Ottawa Senators (11-12-2) got two goals from Josh Norris - the second coming with less than a minute to play in regulation - as they edged the Detroit Red Wings (10-12-4) 2-1, and the Seattle Kraken (13-13-1) impressed with a 5-2 victory at the New York Islanders (9-11-7).